Vampire
Vampires are a supernatural species in Vampire Diaries. They share a number of traits with the traditional vampires of folklore, but also differ in a number of respects. A vampire's powers are made stronger by consuming human blood. If a vampire does not drink human blood, these powers are prone to being less effective and unpredictable, or in some cases, such as mind compulsion, not working at all. Age also plays a factor in how strong a vampire is. The older they are, the more powerful. For example, Pearl overpowered Damon, a vampire 400 years younger. Powers and Abilities Super Strength - Vampires are much stronger than humans, as illustrated by Damon's ability to throw Stefan violently against a garage door several feet away. Stefan throws a football causing Tyler to stumble. Damon breaks a handle to get into a warehouse where Logan was taking refuge from the deadly rays of the sun. Super Speed '''- They can move very quickly, much faster than a human can. Stefan is able to cross the corridor to Vicki Donovan's room in the hospital at great speed, and makes it up to the rooftop of a store in the blink of an eye. He displays this ability again when he speeds across his room to pick up a paper knife to throw at Damon. Damon uses vampire speed when he was dancing with Vicki inside the Salvatore Boarding House. Vicki later uses it, shortly after she was turned into a vampire outside of the same house. using vampire speed.]] '''Superhuman Senses - They have extremely sensitive hearing and can hear conversations a normal human cannot. Stefan heard a conversation about him from several feet away and vampires are able to hear in the high pitched frequency. Vampires also have a very keen sense of smell, as demonstrated by Stefan's ability to recognize that Elena had injured herself by smelling her blood. Vampires have very sharp eyesight and night vision capable of seeing in total darkness. 'Accelerated Healing '- They can heal exceptionally fast. It is possible that this accelerated healing also grants the vampire a very high pain threshold. After Stefan's hand is accidentally sliced open by Jeremy Gilbert it heals over in a matter of seconds. Stefan also realigns his finger after having it dislocated in a football game without much pain. When Stefan stabs Damon with a paper knife, Damon appears unaffected, more concerned with the damage done to his T-shirt than his body. However, it should be noted that when Damon then stabbed Stefan with the same knife in retaliation, Stefan was brought to his knees with pain and took about 10 seconds to recover. This would suggest that a vampire's diet, or at least appetite, plays a part in the effectiveness of this ability. Damon's eyes were clawed out and they instantly regenerated. 'Weather Manipulation-' Damon demonstrates a vampire's ability to control the weather by conjuring fog on several occasions. 'Mind control-' Vampires have the ability to control minds, plague people's dreams, put prey into a sort of trance and alter/erase their memories. Damon refers to this ability in passing as "compulsion". Damon has also shown that this ability can be used to control the minds of animals, as he demonstrates by first using a crow to scare and follow Elena, and again when he summons the crow to feed upon following his imprisonment in the Salvatore Boarding House basement. A vampire's ability to toy with a human's mind can be negated using vervain, as shown when Damon fails to force Elena to kiss him following Stefan giving her a necklace containing vervain. 'Flight-' When Stefan jumps from the roof of the Salvatore Boarding House, he appears to slow his descent for the last few feet to the ground. The vampire in the first few episodes (later revealed to be Damon) appears to swoop down and carry a victim into the air. When Damon finally reveals himself to Stefan, resulting in a fight, Stefan appears to fly across the room at Damon. However besides the first couple episodes there is no suggestion that vampires can fly, just able to leap high and long distances. 'Immortality -' Vampires are nearly indestructible. A vampire stops aging once turned, as evidenced from Stefan, Damon and Lexi. Lexi herself was over 350 years old at her death, but looked like a teenager. Upon their transformation they become immune from all illness and disease. However, they can still be poisoned with vervain, which causes severe weakness and an apparent fever. Although vampires cannot be killed by most conventional methods, direct sunlight, fire or a wooden stake through the heart will suffice. 'Durability - '''When Tyler punches Stefan in the gut, there is no reaction from Stefan. Caroline hits Damon with a lamp; Damon is unaffected suggesting some sort of durability. Also, Lexi was shot several times with conventional bullets, and appeared entirely unaffected by them, except for momentarily recoiling from each hit. Weaknesses 'Vervain-''' When ingested, vervain makes a vampire severely weak and feverish, as shown when Stefan was able to poison Damon with it long enough to imprison him in the basement of the Salvatore's home. Whether consumed directly (eg. through food or alcohol), or indirectly (eg. by feeding on a human who has ingested vervain), the effects are the same. Furthermore, vervain serves as a guard against a vampire's "compulsion", as demonstrated by Elena being protected from Damon by her necklace and by Caroline and Zach who had both ingested it. Alaric also has a safeguarded against Damon's compulsion by concealing vervain in his fist. Vervain may also burn vampires when exposed on the skin. 'Device - '''This device let's out a high pitched sound that vampires are able to hear and are immobilized by it. Its described Stefan "like needles being inserted into my head". '''Sunlight-' Both Stefan and Damon are in possession of rings containing lapis lazuli which protect them from the harmful effects of the sun. However, without such a ring sunlight will burn a vampire on contact. During Damon's imprisonment Stefan deprives him of his ring so when he later tries attacking Caroline and runs into a shaft of sunlight, he's left with nasty facial burns following exposure of approximately 3 seconds. 'Wood -' A wooden stake through a vampire's heart will result in death, upon which the vampire's body will become pale and withered in appearance. In fact, wood penetrating a vampire's body in general appears to be dangerous, and very painful. The Sheriff informs Logan Fell that shooting the vampire terrorizing the town with wooden bullets will slow him down enough for Logan to stake him. When Logan shoots Stefan in the chest with a wooden bullet, Stefan falls to the ground in pain and appears immobilized until Damon comes to his aid and removes the bullet. Furthermore, Noah is visibly in pain and apparently immobilized when Stefan tortures him with a stake in his chest. He also seems bothered when Elena stabs him with pencils. Damon seems quite helpless when Bonnie (possessed by Emily) impales him on a tree branch using telekinesis. 'Fire-' It has been hinted that Damon and Stefan believe Katherine was killed many years ago when she was trapped in a burning church. Also Stefan killed Ben with a flamethrower in "Fool me Once". 'Decapitation-' Damon threatens to finish Logan, stating that he he could take his head right off with a tire iron. This would suggest that decapitation is fatal to vampires, although it has yet to be fully confirmed. Ben.png|Ben is killed by Stephan with a flame thrower. WoodenBullets.png|Wooden bullets are a great weapon against vampires. Myths 'Garlic-' Garlic is shown to have no effect on vampires whatsoever, as witnessed when Stefan cooks with it with Elena, stating that he "loves eating garlic". 'Religious artifacts-' Stefan informs Elena that religious artifacts have no effect on vampires, describing holy water as "drinkable" and crucifixes as "decorative". 'Reflections-' On many occasions Stefan and Damon are seen to have reflections. '''Silver- '''A few stories, both contemporary and from folklore, suggests silver to be harmful to vampires; at present, that does not seem to be the case here, as shown by the Salvatore brothers' rings, and Stefan handling other silver jewelry. Whether silver used as weapons (i.e. bullets, blades, etc.) are also harmless, remains unrevealed. Physical and Psychological Characteristics Vampires look like regular human beings for the most part. However, they undergo a facial transformation when they feed, smell blood, or experience particularly strong emotions. This transformation includes a paler complexion, blood rushing to their eyes with small veins protruding around the area, and their canine teeth lengthening to become fangs. Vampires are by default colder than humans. However, this low/lack of body temperature can be masked by consuming caffeine. Another characteristic of vampirism is enhanced emotions; whatever a person was feeling before the Change is amplified and can be hard to handle. Stefan explains to Elena that Vicki's drug use and addictive personality will have an impact on how she will turn out as a vampire. Also, a vampire appears to be protective towards the one who turned them, as evidenced by Vicki's distress and anger when Tyler attempted to harm Damon. Vampires enjoy stalking and toying with their victims before biting and drinking their blood. Stefan explains that the hunt is often more enjoyable to vampires than the actual feeding. Vampires can suppress their bloodlust to a degree by consuming alcohol. Damon also informs Alaric in the episode Isobel , that vampires have the ability to turn off their humanity. Damon refers to it as being a "switch" that vampires can turn off; he mentions that the easier path is to go with the inherited instinct of remorseless killing. Isobel, Katherine and himself are noted to have chosen this path, while Stefan chooses to go against his instincts and live without taking human life. A vampire may in a way temporarily grant a human their regenerative abilities; following Damon's lethal attack on Bonnie, Stefan fed her some of his blood, healing the gaping wound in her neck in seconds preventing her from bleeding to death. Becoming a Vampire In order for a human to become a vampire, he/she must first consume the blood of a vampire and then die within 24 hours of consumption while the vampire blood is still in his/her system. It would seem that the nature of the mortal's death is irrelevant; Damon and Stefan died after being shot by their father, and Vicki Donovan died when Damon broke her neck. Whether or not a vampire is required to feed on the human in this initial stage is unspecified. Upon mortal death, a period of time elapses before the (un)dead person rises, although he/she is not yet a vampire; rather he/she is in a period of transition. As witnessed with Vicki Donovan, waking in this transitional phase leaves a person disorientated, ravenously hungry and in possession of some of the vampire abilities such as enhanced strength. Stefan threw his father across the room during a confrontation prior to completing the transition. Also, Vicki complained of pain in her jaw and gums (presumably the canines lengthening to fangs) and the Salvatore brothers discussed muscle pains and aversion to the sun's bright light while in transition. Stefan explains to Vicki that in order to complete the transition from human to vampire, she must choose to feed on human blood; the alternative is simply refusing to feed, resulting in rapid bodily failure, and ultimately death. Damon refers to the transitional process as an "ordeal". See also * List of Vampires Category:Vampire Diaries Characters Category:Vampires Category:Supernatural